By Evan Voutsinas

Storefronts are constantly changing on Danforth Avenue—a strip in the east end of Toronto—but the Greek culture that defines area remains held together by a handful of generationally-owned community gem restaurants

Many university students are part of this family-oriented Greektown tradition—clocking in at their families’ restaurants to help with the work and continue their legacies.

Working at family restaurants has been a longstanding practice on the Danforth. Students staff cafes, restaurants and bars while getting themselves through university and learning valuable service skills.

Tony Pethakas, president of the Danforth Business Improvement Area (BIA) and co-owner of the restaurant Mezes, plays a big role in promoting local culture in Greektown. 

“Mezes, historically speaking, has always been an advocate as a place for students to earn an income while in university,” Pethakas said.

Preserving Greek culture is exactly why Pethakas got involved in the restaurant business on the Danforth, pushing him to become BIA chair. “We truly believe in keeping the spirit and history and the culture of Greektown alive,” he said.  “I’m excited to make sure that I do justice to the energy and the hard work of the first generation.”

Vasha Zindros has spent her life immersed in Greek culture on the Danforth. She has taken over Mezes, her late father’s restaurant, alongside Pethakas, and continues to preserve culture in the neighborhood.

“I don’t think my dad, at the outset was like, ‘I picture Mezes as a multi-generational restaurant,” she said. “I think he probably hoped for it, but I don’t think anybody really imagines that
going to happen, and we’re doing it. We’re living it every day. I think he would be so proud.” 

Zindros said she believes it is important to the community that these generational establishments stay running. “It’s no secret that I think a Greek restaurant owner is kind of a a cliché but I’m so tremendously proud of that, because I genuinely can’t think of a more beautiful business that means more to the people [in the community] than a restaurant,” she said. 

To Zindros, this job is more than just preserving culture but rather sharing it, and making it part of the fabric of Toronto. “Greek culture is just based so much on conviviality and welcoming and bright conversation and learning and seeing and sharing and we are all of that,” she said. 

“Our next event here in Greektown is called Fire & Ice.” Pethakas is soundboarding all of the community events on the Danforth with an emphasis on sharing Greek culture. “We want to make sure that we’re constantly adding a Greek component to all the events that we do here in Greektown.” The elements included in the Fire & Ice event are ice sculptures of gods and heroes of Greek mythology.

Mezes brings a whole new meaning to family-style restaurants, Zindros said. “Although the ownership is second generation, we have staff who’s been here for 25 to 30 years, [and] then their children, or nephews or their nieces,” she said. “It’s kids who grew up in the neighbourhood, their first meal they can remember was at Mezes and then they’re working here and putting themselves through school.”

She added that learning how to properly communicate to customers, not only while serving but working with your team, is a genuine skill for students who are going to take this experience and apply it to their careers ahead of them. “I don’t think that there is a skill in life that is not honed working in hospitality,” she said. 

Evva Sofia Pereira Liapis is a third-year photography student at Toronto Metropolitan University.  She works at The Image Centre on campus as well as Mezes on the Danforth.

“Working in hospitality has helped me immensely. I’ve learned how to communicate with anybody, time management, team work, but most importantly problem solving,” she said. “I’m going into a field where I’ll have to work with people day in and day out, making sure that their needs are met. All of these skills will help me interact and get the best out of and for my clients.” 

Pereira Liapis said she feels that without hospitality experience, you get a very narrow vision of the world. “We’re growing up in an unfortunate moment where common sense isn’t so common anymore. A service industry job allows you to understand the world and the people in it, it also helps you adapt to any situation,” she said, adding that it isn’t easy juggling work around classes, exams, deadlines and other jobs. 

“These places that we’re working at have a cultural and sentimental tie, which makes it even more important to uphold and learn how to juggle commitments,” she said.

“Within Greek culture, there’s a concept that whether you know the term formally or not, you’ve felt. Philotimo (φιλότιμο), it’s not a directly translatable term, roughly means brotherhood, or love of honour but it goes deeper than that,” Pereira Liapis said, explaining that this term is used to coin the selfless behaviour that Greeks pride themselves with. “Helping out isn’t optional, it’s who you are. Working in family-run businesses is a way to honour the sacrifices our parents and grandparents made for us to be here.”

George Avgeropoulos is the second-generation owner of Athens Restaurant & Tavern, a well known Greek eatery on the Danforth. Avgeropoulos is carrying a family legacy aimed to provide an authentic Greek dining experience with traditional food and decor. 

Avgeropoulos said he believes it’s crucial to keep these generational establishments running. “We won’t have a Greektown if we don’t do that and having it being a generational establishment, you want to continue this experience for other people to have,” he said. 

Avgeropoulos is also an advocate for students to work within his restaurant. “They’re meeting people. It doesn’t mean because they’re bussing tables or serving tables or cooking in the kitchens or helping doing the prep work. You meet a lot of people in this industry, and it opens doors to other job opportunities. You can be exposed to more people.”

Kevin Kurteshi is a fourth-year sociology student at York University who works at Athens Restaurant & Tavern. “Student-run groups across several universities tend to host events along the Danforth, providing the attempt to keep our culture deeply rooted in this community,” he said.

“Working in the service industry has given me the experience of working with people from all walks of life,” he said. “Working at Athens has given me the opportunity to exercise the skills I have learned while earning my sociology degree.” 

Kurteshi said that he’s found a way to exercise the skills and theory that he has learned from his degree and incorporate them within the hospitality industry. 

Other students like Kurteshi have found the service industry useful for their studies. Nicholas Katsiochristos is a fourth-year University of Toronto student studying evolutionary anthropology who worked on the Danforth at Mezes for seven years. 

Katsiochristos said being an anthropology major working in hospitality allowed him “to view various interactions between patrons in a social environment surrounded by other individuals.” No two encounters are the same in a restaurant.

“Being a server allows me to build my ethnographic skills that anthropologists use while connecting with foreign cultures and becoming a part of their community and learning about their cultural identity,” he said.  

These generationally-run establishments have become central hubs keeping Greek culture alive and students with skills to build have found ways to contribute.

“If you create a space where people are looking forward to being here, look forward to seeing their buddies, look forward to making their jokes…It makes the work go faster,” Zindros said.